Of Friends and Fairies

Well, my baby is now 10 years old.  Within the next few years we'll need to have many "talks."  Last week was one of them. 

I was tipped off by grandma that it was time to have one of those talks.  Mikayla came home from school and said that her friends said that the tooth fairy is... get this... your parents!

Sitting close together on the couch later that evening, the talk went like this...

Me: Your grandma said you were talking about the tooth fairy today.  What were you saying?
Mikayla: My friends say that the tooth fairy is your parents.
Me: Well what do you think?

With a twinkle in her eyes and a smile across her lips to match the twinkle in her eyes, she took her index finger and gently tapped my nose as she said these words in a hushed voice...

"That YOU'RE a LIAR."

I laughed so hard that I cried and then continued the conversation.

Me: So why do you think parents would lie about something like that?
Mikayla:  So kids can have fun.
Me: Yep.  That's pretty much it.  Do you want to keep pretending so you can still get money for your teeth?

I'm not sure I ever got a straight answer on that one.  Guess we'll find out the next time she loses a tooth!

Peace and Frogs

Two of Mikayla's favorite things right now are peace signs and frogs.  In fact, she just chose a geocaching name and it is PeaceGreenFroggy.  That is also what she chose for the theme of her birthday party.

After making her a Barbie cake and a dog-shaped cake for two different birthdays, my first thought was, "Yeah!  Peace signs are round!

Here's what I came up with...

First I frosted the cake with white buttercream frosting.  Next I piped on the peace sign outline with store bought icing in a can that came with decorator tips.  That didn't go so well.  I like using the frosting bags and decorating tips a lot more.  Finally, I dropped drops of food coloring directly on the cake and used a fork to spread out the coloring.

Here's what I came up with for the frogs.  These were very easy!

Green frosting.  Cut marshmallow in half.  Put the sticky side of the marshmallows up and stick a chocolate chip to them.  (I think M&Ms would work better, but I used what we had.)  Pipe on red mouths.

I don't know what it is about decorating Mikayla's birthday cakes and cupcakes, but I really enjoy it.  It's turned out to be a nice tradition!

Vintage Post #5 - The Democrats are Calling

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Democrats are Calling
Current mood:  tired
Category: News and Politics

The phone rings.

Mikayla answers and says hello and then hangs up.  I asked who it was.

She replys, "It was about the election.  He said something about Democrats, so I hung up."

Vintage Post #4 - Official Gas Information

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Official Gas Information
Current mood:  amused
Category: Life

So, we're sitting in the living room watching some tv.  Mikayla has the Magna Doodle out and I look down at it.  She has divided it into four sections labeled - Mom (farts), Moe (farts), Mikayla (burps), Dad (farts).  Beneath each label is tallies of the gas released this evening.

What's my next move?  Enter her into counseling or contact the government to let them know our family may be the answer to the gas shortage?

Insulting a Duck

Today while driving home from soccer, Mikayla and I took a detour through Smithville and visited The Barn.  We enjoy stopping off and seeing the ducks and feeding them when we are prepared.  (Today we were not prepared for feeding them.  Since it was not in our original plans for the day, we didn't have bread scraps and I was fresh out of quarters to insert in the feeders.)

We threw a few pieces of kettle corn that we had with us and then examined the area for eggs.  We saw quite a few in the water, like we did a couple weeks earlier and also found a couple under a bush.

Mikayla walked around the edge of the pond and was acting like a duck.  I asked her if she was ready to go.  Her reply was, "No!  Wait!  I'm not done insulting a duck."

I had to chuckle and ask if she meant "impersonating."  With no clear answer, I asked her if she knew what "insulting" meant.  She said that it meant being rude.

So hours later as I type this, I'm still not sure if my daughter was "insulting a duck" or "impersonating a duck" today.  Or perhaps it was a little bit of both!